India fastest growing sports market at 15% per annum POWA index

The Indian sports market that is growing at 15% per annum against the global growth rate of 5% which opens a window of opportunities for the world’s first data-driven, real-time sports sponsorship valuation engine POWA Index.

DataPOWA, providers of the London & New York-based POWA index, is targeting India to explore one of its biggest territory opportunities. The company sees the multi-million dollar Indian sports market as the perfect match for its data-driven, real-time sports sponsorship valuation engine and will target sports rights owners, sponsors and agencies in the region.

“POWA index is important to facilitate the growth in the Indian sports sponsorship market,” says dataPOWA CEO Michael Flynn while sharing the company’s plans for India. In an exclusive chat with InsideSport.co, Flynn explained why India is important to POWA Index. Here are edited excerpts:

InsideSport: POWA index is targeting to enter the fast growing Indian sports market. What extra do you bring on board for the stakeholders?

Michael Flynn: The POWA index could allow the Indian sports market to move into a new era of measurement, jumping ahead of many sports organisations  in the West. The West is still focusing on media exposure. The numbers about the media exposure alone do not provide the right media value conversions for a sports sponsorship property.

Sponsorship evaluation is much more than mere media exposure. It is not just about getting your banner out and finding out how many exposures a brand logo gets. The better way of looking at the values is to know the reach and impact (POWA) of the platform you are working on. Not just at the global level, but down to the region and surely down to the country.

ROIs on sponsorships are about interacting with the fans and sharing that passion. These crucial factors can only be measured through impacts. That’s where POWA Index becomes important in order to grow the Indian sports marketplace.

IS: You have the experience of working in the European and American market. However, the India market is distinct in terms of consumers’ interests and needs. How will POWA Index bridge that gap?

MF: No two nations or regions will have similar consumer behaviour. The POWA Index does not just look at one particular area. It evaluates all the possible aspects of a sponsorship.

Honestly speaking, we will be using the same analytics and tools that we have been using for the US or the European markets. However, they will certainly be used differently. Initially, there will be a much bigger focus on the media impact. It allows to look at key areas to grow sponsorships. The analytics tool directs to the areas where a sponsorship can get the best asset to put the budget.

IS: What is your targeted client base in India?

MF: We would be working at three sides – the key brands, the clubs and the league and then there will be the agencies. The agencies are important as they make these things work for the brands. POWA index gives them an opportunity to report what is actually happening with the brand. We will be doing in depth what the agencies need for their clients.

It takes an agency three, four or five days of effort to just look at a one particular area of a sponsorship. With POWA index they will get more detailed analytics at the click of a button.

IS: Who will be the real beneficiaries. If you say the rights holders, the sponsors and the agencies are all going to gain form POWA index, in what order will you put the benefits they may derive from the analytic tool?

MF: The development method of our products allows all stake holders to benefit from the analytics in decision making from the day one. We have launched in the UK in October and we are seeing the brands, the agencies and the clubs deriving benefits. It is a two-way street for us. We are not just looking at the one side of the rights. We are looking at brands and the property owners. But probably the group that benefits instantly is the agencies. It is their business. It is what they make their money from. This is the tool that helps them make decisions and provide information.

IS: How big is the market for you in monetary terms?

MF: I can’t give you an exact figure off the cuff. But we have identified India and Australia as the next two markets to focus on. We just look at the numbers and they are incredible. The money does matter. The Indian market is growing at such a speed that it will be silly for us to not to target it, especially when we have links in India.

The global sports market is growing at 5% per annum. With all our information we can say that the Indian market is growing almost at a three-time faster pace. The numbers we see at present are close to 15%.

IS: Please share a little more insight into POWA Index. When you use term real time data, does it mean that a sponsor may get to know in the middle of an event how its brand is performing?

MF: A client will be able to see individual peaks and points, but it doesn’t go down to that micro level. In some cases it might be coming live, while in some other aspects it might be monthly or even an annual financial data analysis as well.

The POWA index uses 60 different data points or sources – ranging from the TV screens to Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and other social media assets. Each of them have their own values to actually measure the impact of a campaign. So we get the reach, we get the number of followers and then there are engagement numbers. Thereafter we look at the search engines, the news portals for in depth analysis. We literally cover such a wide field going live 24/7/365 to get a 360° view of a sponsorship, incorporating the strength of different platforms.

POWA index crawls trillions of data points daily across 60 unique data sets, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Google, Bing, broadcast, sports media, gaming & financial data and even weather!

IS: DataPOWA claims that POWA index analyses data through 60 different lenses. What are the key determining factors from the Indian market perspective in particular?

MF: Lets us take this example. We can tell from the Indian market perspective that how impactful Manchester United is in comparison to say a Chennaiyin FC. We can give an Indian sponsor the measure of the American Super Bowl impact in India. The brands or the agencies can break it down for any country. We can tell you that Real Madrid are the biggest football team in terms of marketing impact in India and in the world from an Indian brand perspective, including all Indian based football teams

POWA index can tell you how an Indian Super League team is performing in India in comparison to any Premier League or La Liga or say a Serie A team. While talking about football, we can tell you that the interest in the sport is significantly growing in India.

IS: The POWA index for the Indian Premier League reveals sponsors’ POWA index valuation at £36.2 million, whereas title sponsors Vivo’s actual contract is valued at £ 47.9 million. Does that mean the brand has paid more than its projected ROIs from the sponsorship?

MF: If I look at the live IPL numbers now, it is bigger than WWE globally but smaller than Formula 1. In the USA it bigger than any international cricket, it’s bigger than the No. 1. champion baseball team. With POWA index you can look at the IPL performance in different countries, i.e., how does it perform in comparison to the Big Bash League.

POWA index number is our valuation of sponsorships performance. We use the score to value sponsorships. We even go to the minutest point of identifying the marquee players and then evaluate their contribution as one of the determining factors for the sponsorship values.

You can say based on our POWA matrix, the sponsor probably has not made the best decision. It is probably that the brand personally values its association with that specific sponsor, club or the team on a much greater level than we did. For a brand living, working in and targeting a particular area it can be worth to pay the amount it paid for a sponsorship value even if it is higher than POWA Index valuation. However, for all the brands in general it might not be a wise investment at that price.

POWA Index is a tool that helps you make a decision. As a sponsor you may have your own reasons to pay over and above the POWA index value and that is fine. POWA Index basically is a decision-making tool that gives you the options for the best value for your money.

The data we provide gives them (the various stake holders) the ability to calculate the value of the potential sponsorships. So, when they go to negotiate they should know what sort of money they should be paying for the property. On the flip side, it allows the actual rights holders to understand about the strength on social media and their marketing campaigns in order to get them better deal for the sponsorships.